Event Details

No Decision About Us Without Us: Beacon Community Schools as an Infrastructure for Equity, Learning and Civic Engagement

Due to a high volume of conference registrants and limited space capacity, registration is now closed for the Beacons National Conference.

For those participating in the Richard Murphy Memorial Mapping Project that must attend the Mapping America: Youth, Technology and Civic Engagement ConvergeIntensive on May 17th from 9:30-12:30, we are still accepting registrations. Please email Kenya George at kenya@nfsc-nyc.orgwith the subject line “Richard Murphy Memorial Mapping” and include in the body of the email your name, title, organization and Beacon site.

May 16, 2013

Agenda Day 1

8:30am -9:00am Registration and Breakfast

9:00am -9:20am Welcome (Auditorium)

Sandra Escamilla, Executive Director, Youth Development Institute

Sarah Zeller-Berkman, Director of Community Youth Development, Youth Development Institute

1:15pm-2:30pm Critical Conversations:What role can Beacon Community Schools play in promoting equity in our schools and communities?

Raising Awareness about Beacons/Campaign for Children (Room 115A)

Raising Awareness about Beacons/Campaign for Children (Room 115B)

Voter Registration (Room 221)

Youth on Community Boards (Room 322)

Youth on Community Boards (Room 324)

2:30pm-3:00pm Prep for Action Hour(same as above)

3:00pm-3:15pm Closing (Auditorium)

3:15pm-4:15pm Action Hour: Beacon youth and staff at conference and across NYC take action on issues of equity, advocacy or civic engagement

Raising awareness about Beacon Community Schools or the Campaign for Children

Gathering signatures to allow 16 & 17 year olds to serve on community boards in New York City

Voter Registration

6:00pm Networking Happy Hour at Aloft Harlem Hotel Bar/Lounge

10:00pm Freedom Dance Party (reduced admission at Le Poisson Rouge)

Workshop Descriptions

May 16th Morning Workshops 10:30-12:30

A) Quality Belongs to All - Involving Young People and Adults in Program Quality Improvement Efforts (Minneapolis Beacon Initiative)

Program quality assessment is not just for adults. This workshop will focus on the methods and learnings of the MPLS Beacons Network in creating youth-adult teams to assess and improve quality in their centers. Focusing on key youth-adult partnership strategies, facilitators will discuss recruitment and training of assessors, co-designing an evaluation tool, and how to assess together.

B) Ladders of Leadership: A Program Model to Support Equity, Learning and Civic Engagement (Youth Adult Partnership Initiative, New York City)

Ladders of Leadership is a program model that supports young people to take on greater roles and responsibilities in their programs and communities. Young people gain skills necessary for the critical transitions from elementary to middle school, middle to high school and beyond. In this interactive workshop, participants will engage with Beacon staff and youth who are currently implementing a Ladders of Leadership model with support from New York Life Foundation and the Youth Development Institute. Participants will be guided through small group work and concrete resources to envision how a Ladders of Leadership model can work in their own program context.

C) El Puente’s Arts for Social Change Model (El Puente, New York City)

El Puente Beacon will introduce workshop participants to El Puente’s Arts for Social Change model that illustrates how the arts can nurture an understanding of civic engagement and can be used as a powerful tool in the quest for social justice and engaging youth to become program leaders. Participants will map out potential activities and community collaborations they can implement with young people to explore issues of social justice.

D) ELO in the Beacon Model: Connecting with Schools and Engaging Youth through Enrichment (Boys and Girls Club, Denver)

Want to take your relationship with your school to the next level? This workshop is designed to connect the Beacons Model with promising practices and open dialogue surrounding Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELO). Facilitators will share examples from successful Denver ELO programs participants will receive tools for building relationships with schools, planning for ELO, and share ideas surrounding deepening integration of programs into schools. Lastly participants will discuss ways to adapt promising practices of ELO in their own program context.

May 16th Afternoon Workshops 1:00-3:00

A) Creative Skills and Strategies for Engaging Youth in Community Service Projects (Educationworks, Philadelphia)

Educationworks of Philadelphia will present lessons from the Vaux Freedom Garden civic engagement project. The interactive workshop will focus on the development of youth driven service learning projects, particularly the use of project-based learning plans to ensure that academic content is infused and new skills are learned. Participants will learn about how the project developed, the roles of adult facilitators and young people throughout the project as well as the funding structure and how the work is being sustained. Participants will be supported to adapt promising practices to their own program context.

Participants in this workshop will be introduced to a curriculum, “Tailor Made”, created by the OMI Beacon in San Francisco. Through interactive discussions and role plays participants will learn skills that help young people verbally de-escalate in potentially violent situations. The workshop will touch on gang-violence and violence prevention, and move the group to think about ways to engage gang-involved young people in Beacon programming. Lastly, participants will be supported to think about how to ultimately create a pathway to leadership for gang-involved young people to move from gang member to program leader.

C) Beacon Community Centers: Preparing Youth for 21st Century Success (Department of Youth and Community Development, New York City)This workshop will explore how Beacon Community Centers are responding and preparing youth to succeed in tomorrows’ workforce. The Department of Youth and Community Development will share promising practices in the field of youth development that foster collaboration between schools, communities and businesses to best support learning. This workshop will be a hands-on, exploratory learning experience.

D) Step up and Step out: Using Character Education to Promote Resilience, Empathy,